Tongeren

Last weekend, we drove to the city of Tongeren, only a half hour away.

Tongeren is Belgium's oldest city, founded in 15 B.C.

And later occupied by the Romans probably serving as a base and supply station for the Roman troops.

The first Roman city wall, built in the 2nd century and once 3 miles long, still stands as a symbol of Roman occupation.

This wall is completely exposed, just running right beside the highway.

You can stand on it. We didn't.

You can take a rock or two as a souvenir. We didn't do that either.

Just seems like something as old as the Pantheon should be protected.

The Basilica of Our Lady, a beautiful Gothic church, has a long history with its first stone laid in 1240.

I was so glad to finally see huge cherry trees and the added bonus of cherry pickers!

You know that milk is probably pink too.

We pulled over so I could take this picture and this man asked if we wanted to help.

So we did.

We opted not to climb the ladder and pick cherries . . .

instead we drove down the road and bought some cherries. And green plums. All this for €5.

Ross asked this lady if we could take her picture and I could tell it made her day :)

This was a spur-of-the-moment outing so we hadn't done any research on the town. I have since read a little more and realize we missed quite a bit. Since it is so close, we will probably drive there again with advance knowledge of the sites.

This is a brief and very interesting history of Tongeren if you'd like to know more.

And incidentally, Robert Cailliau, co-founder of the World Wide Web, was born in Tongeren.